Monthly Archives: August 2008

Vinyl Hunters Take Note: Weekend Treasure

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I just know I am shooting myself in the foot for sharing this, but rabid vinyl collectors everywhere should know about Weekend Treasure, a BRILLIANT idea. It’s a directory of garage sales, showing you where all the hotspots are for the week in your area and beyond.

Pure genius…an idea that was begging to happen. I am sure this directory does nothing but bring out all the rabid eBayers at 6AM, but maybe-just maybe-there is a place in the United States that is NOT overrun by online auction buyers. There’s still plenty of warm weather left to use Weekend Treasure for those of us in the Midwest, and anyone in the Austin/Dallas/Waco/OKC area is sure to find plenty of garage sales to scoop up new vinyl year round. Great site…

The Lost Turntable

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Face it, blogs about vinyl are very few and far between when compared to their “anything goes” counterparts, so I was very pleased to find The Lost Turntable. It bears mentioning that I am a new fan of this blog not because of the MP3s from 12-inch singles and remixes, but because the writing is wonderfully caustic and fearless. In a review of Lollapalooza–which you couldn’t get me to at gunpoint because of those insane crowds–there is plenty of angst directed against Radiohead for a bewilderingly fan-unfriendly stage show, and some spleen venting at Rage Against The Machine. I quote now, only half-recovered from this. It made me laugh, depressing as it is…truer words were never written in a music blog about any one group…ever:

“Hey Rage, you do know that 90% of your fans don’t even give a shit about ‘the revolution,’ social injustice, political reform or the vanishing working class right? They just want to hear ‘Killing In The Name Of’ and start some shit. Nice message you got, too bad it’s falling on deaf ears. Time to call it a day.”

This sentiment is one I’ve had for a 13 years now and I am glad I’m not alone in the universe. Sometimes you don’t go to a show–in spite of how much you want to hear the band tear it up live–because you hate the FANS OF THE GROUP. I’d never go to a Nine Inch Nails show or a Ministry set for this reason. (Never mind that Ministry’s best days were when Al Jourgensen was in the inbetween period from pretending to be a gay disco maven to being the brain-dead industrial metal steelworker he became.)

But I digress. The Lost Turntable is all about bringing much-needed exposure to 12-inch vinyl and related sundries. I am a new convert…glad I found you, TLT.– RECOMMENDED

Fugazi Seven Songs EP

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Don’t ask me how I discovered this…let’s simply say that I was surprised to learn that Hot Topic is not only still selling vinyl records–I thought they’d give this up ages ago– to kids with daddy’s credit card and a penchant for S&M imagery/mass-marketed faux rebellion, but here they are selling Fugazi records. I was certain this goth-for-trust-fund-kids chain would be knee-deep in the Cookie Monster Metal and Death Cab For Cutie stuff and nothing more. Imagine my shock to find the 7 Songs EP 12-inch vinyl listed on the website for just under eight bucks.

That discovery led to a much better one. I hit paydirt with this excellent blog, Hardcore For Nerds, which features this entry on the aforementioned Fugazi vinyl. I thought I was alone among people who liked Fugazi but felt the earliest stuff was the most interesting. I have not guzzled the kool-aid on all hardcore, but I do love much of the stuff from the first and second waves. Minor Threat, The Descendants, Fear, Black Flag, early NoFX, there’s too much to name. I could never be one of those people who always seemed to populate any zip code I happened to live in–the types who listened to hardcore and little else. How boring indeed. But I digress.

Hardcore For Nerds is a very worthy read and I’m pleased to have found it. Nice work, youze.

ION USB Turntable

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Yes, I own one of these. No, it is NOT pro DJ gear or high end audio equipment. The ION USB turntable is basically just a tool to get your vinyl converted to MP3s quickly and without too much fuss. When I do actual DJ work, I prefer to spin the vinyl records themselves in addition to my digital library of sounds, but for travel I enjoy plenty of converted albums thanks to the ION.

They just are NOT going to release those hilariously corny (and quite fun) born-again Christian new wave albums by Steve Taylor, Servant, or The Seventy-Sevens on CD, and if they have, I predict they will sound wretched compared to the vinyl. Why I have an affinity for those particular releases has a lot to do with why I love those old Isaac Hayes disco records and the Mystic Moods Orchestra, but that’s another story for another time.

The ION is under a hundred bucks, gets the job done with software included and keeps me traveling with all the hardcore evangelistic new wave quaalude music I can stand. Why born-again Christians ever thought that futuristic quiffs and syncopated synth fills could disguise the fact that they were trying to save you from THE DEVILLLLLLL is beyond me, but the music is still pretty fun. It’s like listening to a Karen Finley album, except you feel dirty in a completely DIFFERENT way.